And therein lies my "theory" that the Austrian (mentioned in the article) was actually a double-agent working for the Soviets and was letting himself be "used" so that he can get complete systems with some deformities/problems to the Soviets and then have them reverse engineer the system while correcting/fixing the problem parts/deformities. Similar to how technicians (particularly in Asia/Africa) in many industries without any formal engineering knowledge learn to fix Cars/Bikes/Smartphones/etc (many of them are even uneducated). Of course with truly advanced technology like microchips/etc. it may be extremely difficult but with the resources of an entire state behind you may not be impossible.
As Sherlock Holmes says in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men"; “What one man can invent, another can discover.”